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Monday, March 28, 2016

Garden share collective - colour

The latest garden share collective calls for a a post about colour. Well I suppose brown is a colour!
I have been preparing the soil for my main growing season during the last couple of weeks. I spread out some manure (brown), sprinkled a little lime (white) and after lightly digging that in I spread brown cardboard over the top of that!
Our local Coles supermarket has been selling little potted herbs for 1.98. These are the best deal ever, they are so crammed with little plants, that I have been buying them and then using them as little transplants. 3.95 for a six pack or 1.98 for a million pack! I got fennel, parsley and even capsicum (the capsicum had two plants.) Here is some of the fennel. They are such delicate little plants, so I just lay them into a trough and filled in from the side. I know we are on the edge of the fennel growing area, so they might not form a bulb.

Two different kinds of parsley were planted in the wicking beds, with eggplant in the center.

I have some overseas visitors coming in the beginning of April and realized that since I was short on cardboard, the area near the pathway had uncovered soil and the manure was beginning to attract some flies. So I thought it might have cooled down enough to pop a few seeds in and cover the ground with some mulch. No job in the garden is ever a small job, but this seemed more enticing than the cleaning of windows which had been my original chore for today. Oh golly I find is so easy to be enticed out into the garden. This little section under the cherry tree had its edges straightened and some seeds planted. We will just have to walk out into the garden instead of looking out at it through the dirty windows!

Further back will just have have to wait until I have more time. The area against the fence has some green beans against the fence and two rows of fennel. I did put up the shade cloth as the sun is still pretty fierce.

The sweet potato have been dug out and the soil amended, then cardboard laid over the top. The very back section behind the pawpaw tree is where I put the last of my grass. (Yes it is all gone!) I laid it upside down in a huge pile and then covered with cardboard. It will eventually rot down into lovely soil.
That citrus tree at the very back of this bed is a mandarin lime and it has never shown any sign of flowering or fruiting. It has good soil, happy leaves - what else should I try?
In the next month I need to straighten and secure all the edges of these beds, and plant out some beets, radishes and tomatoes.
Oh! I found some colour - the coffee beans are starting to turn red, so I am going to have to do some research to see how those need to be processed.

I'm living vicariously through your gardening posts since we are under water restrictions for 3 months (March 1 - May 31)..can't wait till I can plant and water as I please again.Your food garden is coming along nicely.

I can't wait to read how you work with the coffee beans. I think dirty windows are fine! Who cares when you can head outside as you say �� Your garden is looking wonderful and is a testament to your hard work

Kyrstie,I just received your book "grow just one thing" in the mail - thank you. What a beautiful book - it is jam packed with useful information. I love this time of year when the weahter becomes more bearable.

I would do anything to avoid washing windows too :-) lovely to see how green and lush your garden looks. I'm pulling out my summer crops, and it's so very dry down here - it's a struggle to keep things alive.

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You will notice that in some of my older posts the photos have been lost. I am sooo sorry. I have left them there because they still contain a lot of good information. Where appropriate I will slowly begin adding in more photos, so hang in there!

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Quotes I enjoy

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables, they probably get jet-lagged, just like people do - Elizabeth Berry

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:6-7

The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more,

but in developing the capacity to enjoy less

- paraphrased from Socrates quote

“See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

Nature in all its diversity grants us a glimpse into the heart of God the Father which is nothing but Love.

It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you seeHendry David Thoreau

Making a garden is not a gentle hobby for the elderly,to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole, and once it has done so he will have to acceptthat his life is going to be radically changed. May SartonPlant Dreaming Deep, 1983

When the trees sing,It doesn't really matterIf you know the song, Or if you know the words,Or even if you know the tune.What really matters is knowing ....That the trees are singing at all.Mattie Stepanek, 1990-2004

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walkor an evening saunter;to be thrilled by the stars at night:to be elated over a bird's nestor a wildflower in spring... these are some of the rewards of the simple life.John Burroughs, 1837-1921

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…”– Thoreau

“Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

You who walkmaybe with troubled thoughts....Come, enter here and restand may the sweet serenityof growing things....and the heavenly peacebe mirrored in thy soul.by Michael Palmer

Gods GardenThe Lord God planted a gardenIn the first white days of the world,And he set there an angel wardenIn a garment of light enfurled.So near to the peace of HeavenThat the hawk might nest with the wren,For there in the cool of the evenGod walked with the first of men.And I dream that these garden closesWith their shade and their sun-flecked sodAnd their lilies and bowers of roses,Were laid by the hand of God.The kiss of the sun for pardon,The song of the birds for mirth, -One is nearer God’s heart in a gardenThan anywhere else on earth.For He broke it for us in a gardenUnder the olive-treesWhere the angel of strength was the wardenAnd the soul of the world found ease.Dorothy Francis Gurney

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.Mary Jean Iron

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.Albert Einstein

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."~ John Lubbock******************************************************